Part 1

Slowly the boy changed under the rehabilitation efforts of the Church of Freya.

At first he seemed to have suffered a mental trauma and was prone to falling into bouts of depression due to his failure and guilt over being the only survivor.

Gradually as the years passed, he recovered. His emotionless mask became a rarer and rare sight as time went on.

Gradually as the years passed, he began to show more and more outward emotions. Not all of these were his true feelings though.

The boy still showed a deeply ingrained distrust for strangers. He had developed a knack to spotting and underlying motives of the people trying to get close to him.

Those who tried to approach him for his power were blocked by a wall of forced politeness while only those who had succeeded in befriending him were told his true thoughts.

The one person who succeeded was the Divine Saint serving the Goddess Freya. Another one was an adventurer sent by the Holy Seer.

Now, many years after the destruction of his Church, those close to the boy were in danger once again.

This time he would not allow himself to fail.

He would protect them with all his power.

Because they were his friends and comrades…

“It was only because of my abilities as a Divine Saint that I was able to survive the massacre of my church. If word gets out that someone from the church that was supposedly wiped out survived then assassins may after me to finish the job. I don’t mean regular assassins either. I may have to end up fighting that Divine Saint Knight again...”

“So that’s why you don’t use specialised spells… meh… whatever”

“Well that aside, you also said that only a Divine Saint could match a Divine Saint so doesn’t this mean that you can stop... what was his name… Seirph?”

“Wait… you’re just going to accept it like that? You’re not angry with me for hiding it?”

“Yeah I am but now is not the time to get angry. It’s your business as well so I have no right to dig any deeper into it.”

“Divine Saint… whatever… After all the things we’ve been through I don’t think hiding that is such a big deal, I mean, you had your reasons. Also as long as we keep our mouths shut the other churches won’t know about your return right?”

“No it’s not as simple as that. The other churches are bound to have seers watching the flow of holy power so at least one of them will have noticed the large abnormalities in the flow caused by my Heaven’s Calling spells. That being said there’s still a chance that they might mistake it for Seirph but since I’ve already used them I might as well go all out.”

Ferrex gave the negative response but nevertheless, Godou could see that a heavy load seemed to have lifted from his shoulders.

“So different Divine Saints require different types of Sacred Energy to use their powers and this current area is filled with a Sacred Energy called Resurrection Energy right?”

“Yeah that’s about right.”

Godou felt impressed by Reta’s ability to ask a question loaded with terms which she had only heard a few minutes ago so quickly. Ferrex seemed similarly impressed but replied back seriously.

“So how are you using your powers as a Divine Saint? Can you manipulate Resurrection Energy as well for some reason? It just doesn’t add up.”

“The Sacred Power of my Church is called Soul Power. It has the special property of being able to be obtained from other types of Sacred Power. To put it simply, I converted Resurrection Energy into Soul Power and used it to fuel my own spells.”

“So you can basically steal his Sacred Energy?”

“Yeah. This property of Soul Power is one of the main reasons why my Church was targeted to be wiped out. Sacred Energy with this type of property is exceedingly rare. The only other type of Sacred Energy I can remember off the top of my head that can do the same thing is the one which belongs to the Church serving the god of flames and trickery.”

A god with the attributes of flames and trickery. Godou felt this term resonate within the cords of his memory. Wasn’t there a god with such attributes in reality’s mythology?

That scene suddenly sprang vivid in Godou’s mind, a handsome youth banishing a golden sword, fighting desperately to sever the blue flames coming from a certain tome affiliated with the powers of a god with such characteristics.

Godou shook his head to bring himself back into the present. During that time he had been in a crisis as well, however, there was no way that something as convenient as that tome would suddenly appear now.

Meanwhile, Reta continued their interrogation.

“Are you able to full convert Seirph’s whole store of Resurrection Energy? Without any Sacred Energy he would be helpless wouldn’t he?”

“I am converting Resurrection Energy to Soul Power has we speak. However, I don’t think you can raise your hopes on something like that. My conversion method is imperfect so the Soul Power will revert back into Resurrection Energy if I leave it alone for too long. Also, keep in mind that without Sacred Energy, a Divine Saint is still a first rate mage who can heal. That being said a first rate mage can still single-handedly destroy an army if they wanted to. He probably has some skill in physical techniques as well.”

“But he would still be weakened wouldn’t he?”

“Yes he would be weakened but not helpless. Speaking of which, Reta do you have any high magic resistance armour?”

“Why?”

“I can try to dispel the skill lockdown that’s currently imposed on you.”

“Okay let’s try it then.”

Meanwhile in the centre of the plateau where the battle began, a shining multi-winged figure hovered lightly over a devastated battlefield. The ground was littered with bloodstains, broken equipment and small craters. This figure was of course, Seirph.

Around him were the scattered corpses of both knights and their war horses.

The mighty Knights of Kallamore had fallen.

“…You monster…”

“I am not a monster… but a bringer of miracles.”

A voice spoke out of the darkness. Seirph quickly located the source and replied coolly. One of the knights had staggered back to their feet. Unsteady and trembling but nevertheless, emitting a strong aura of fighting spirit.

The knight managed to capture a stray horse, quickly mounting and charging straight at him. Barely batting an eyelid, Seirph imagined a trench of angled spikes of rock appearing in front of the horse.

“Earth Spike”

The horse came to a sudden stop as it rammed straight into the spikes, impaling itself. The knight was thrown off it from the momentum of the charge. Adapting quickly, the knight swung his sword forward as he flew towards Seirph.

Seirph simply held up his hand up in front of the airborne knight, imagining a bolt of compressed air exploding from his palm.

“Air bullet”

With a jolt the knight was blown backwards violently, smashing to the ground a considerable distance away. He landed and tumbled roughly on the ground coming to a stop about 12 metres away where he stood up no more.

You have killed a Captain of the Kallamore Knights. Resurrection Energy has increased by 723.

Seirph scanned the remaining combatants on the plateau, killing all the survivors he found. Men, horses, he killed them all. Then, finding no more, he quietly suppressed the power of Heaven’s Calling: Ascension of Embinyu.

The 10 glowing wings on his back decreased to 2 and a shining halo appeared on his head instead.

In this form, the power of Ascension of Embinyu was weakened but the consumption of Resurrection Energy was also greatly reduced. Because of the high cost of Resurrection Energy, Seirph preferred not to release the full power of Ascension of Embinyu for too long as he wouldn’t gain enough profit in Resurrection Energy from his sacrifices.

As he did so, Seirph extended his web of holy sensing to encompass the entirety of the area covered by his large field barrier.

Of the 3000 strong army about 2500 remained alive. This army was really foolish to actually walk into his trap. Seirph had noticed that they had suspected him right from the beginning. There was no way that they wouldn’t. But yet they still followed him.

They probably thought that I was about to lead them into an ambush from another army or something. How foolish!

Now, all of the survivors were now scattered across the surrounding areas still fighting the demonic spirits or resting. Sooner or later they would end up being completely wiped out by the demonic spirit but simply waiting for that to happen would take too long so Seirph decided against choosing that method. Besides, it seemed that there were some interesting fighters in the army who managed to take down the demonic spirits themselves.

Extending his holy sensing further, Seirph felt a strange sensation from something that resonated with his Divinity. It was almost as if there was another type of Sacred Energy present. Immediately, he recalled one of the Freya supporters that had warned him about the monster army. Was he the cause of this?

Seirph flew to the group of fighters closest to him. Ironically, this group was fighting in a large field right next to the Lost Temple of Lou.

He landed behind them and killed them all with a single blast of magic. then he extended his holy sensing again to find the next group and to do the same thing but then stopped.

It would be a real pain to hunt them all down when they were all so scattered so why don’t I just bring everybody back here then.

Seirph flew up high, releasing all 10 of his wings out again. He envisioned a raging sphere of gravity being summoned which dragged everything he targeted with his holy sensing back to his current location.

“Gravity Bind!”

Without further ado, an intense storm of gravity was created. The remaining defenders of Kallamore as well as the corpses of the Kallamore Knights and demonic spirits were sucked away and unceremoniously dropped onto the new battlefield.

Part 2

“Eh?”

“What?”

“Holy Shit!”

Various exclamations and curses of surprise were made as the fighters suddenly found themselves thrown in mid-air. Many of them landed with a heavy thud taking major fall damage. Quite a few people died from the fall itself.

Godou landed lightly on the ground. It seemed that the buff Ferrex gave him was still protecting him. He saw that Reta and Ferrex managed to land without any problems either and quickly moved to regroup with them, his movement speed buff taking him by surprise. He was going to have to take note of that.

The trio found a secluded corner of the battlefield to find out the gist of what was happening.

It seemed like everyone fighting, both humans and demons, had been dragged back to this location. They could see an angel-like figure, Seirph, flying across the battlefield, completely annihilating every party he ran across, giving off the image of a messenger of god coming to deal Divine Retribution.

“Woah… Heaven’s Calling: Ascension of Embinyu, what an absurd level of power. These stats and abilities are of the chart!”

“What? Are you saying that you can see Seirph’s stats or something?”

“Speaking of which you complete saw through my deficiencies during the fight with the demon. How did you do it?”

Ferrex’s sudden exclamation brought forth many questions which he anwsered honestly.

“I used a Divine Saint spell on myself called Heaven’s Calling: True Sight to increases my perception… In my current state I’m pretty much something one step short of being completely omniscient.”

What a convenient ability. Now that he thought about it, Godou realised that such an ability could be dangerous in many ways. From what he understand, wasn’t that ability something along the lines of being able to consecutively obtain spirit vision oracles with no risk?

“That’s strange… Seirph’s holy spells are obviously structured by magic circles but these elemental spells seem different… rather constructing a predetermined circle it’s almost as if he’s creating them… This is ancient magic? No he isn’t creating them at all… turning your imagination into direcly reality… this is something that precedes even ancient magic… ”

Seeing the Godou’s questioning look, Ferrex elaborated even further.

“Magic is the act of structuring mana into circles to produce phenomena. Modern day magic spells are the product of many hundreds of years’ worth of research based on more ancient magic. However, the ancient magic originally used by the mortal races was and still is, just a mere imitation the Divine Powers of Gods. Instead of creating any magic circles at all, Seirph is just imagining what he wants to happen and letting his power rewrite the world to his whims… that’s the feeling I’m getting.”

Morale had fallen again when the army spotted the corpses of the Kallamore Knights. Hopelessness was written on all the soldier’s faces as they fought against the demonic spirits and the angel winged Seirph.

However, rallying calls were being made in several different places by higher level players to counteract the drop in morale. Godou could also see that many high level players were starting to team up with each other to organise a counter attack.

This sort of situation was beyond the point where he could try and talk his way out of it…

Watching this chaotic situation, Ferrex suddenly said:

“Godou, please run away and hide until everything settles down. You could get killed very easily as it is right now.”

“No, I’m not going to let you face off against that monster alone. I’m coming with you.”

And understandable proposal but Godou found himself refusing it. He was never one to abandon his friends in the first place but there were other reasons as well.

“Kyaa… I’m witnessing the makings of a great bromance… it’s like one of those mangas where main character heads off to battle proclaiming “Don’t worry I will protect you” to the heroine… fufufu I really wonder where this will lead to… “

“Please don’t have such strange misunderstandings, I even if I run I’ll get stuck at the barrier and a doubt hiding will help for long. The only way to get out is to take down Seirph isn’t it? Besides, I’m not one to just abandon my friends. Reta you should go and fight with the other high level players. As it is, staying in parties with varying levels will only hinder your abilities. Go! We will try to come up with something.”

Godou answered Reta’s slightly forced comment with a serious suggestion. He had noticed that the disorganised formation of players was hindering any change of a counterattack. It would probably be best if Reta teamed up with other high level players then wouldn’t it?

The soldiers in the Kallamore army were faring slightly better because their commanders were able to regain control. However, the majority of players were not part of the army and had joined as mercenaries who have no real chain of command in-between them.

“Ha ha ha I see you’re keen on having your alone time even in a situation like this... Well, this current formation of parties is weaker against stronger opponents. If we stay as we are then we’re going to be as screwed as the humans in 2012 when the aliens come to invade… kay I’m going… see ya~”

Reta has left the party

While Reta left leaving behind words which screamed for a tsukimoni, Godou noticed that her eccentricity was a good trait in this situation. Being able to crack jokes like that in this situation helped calm down your allies.

As soon as Reta left, Ferrex dropped his façade of freighted calmness and immediately fell into despair

“Damn it! I can think of about 9 different plans of how to get out of this and the success probability of them all is below 1%.”

“Tell me the details.”

This was the first time Godou had seem Ferrex with such a stressed expression.

“There too many things to consider! Too many lives! Too many things to worry about! If any more of these soldiers die then this section of Kallamore has basically fallen. Tellap and Naidiriv will be in a crisis when so many of their soldiers have died. Foreigners may come back to life but we natives are not so fortunate. They are frontier towns after all and get dragged into small skirmishes as often as major wars. There’s also a river around here was well so any large attack will have to be carefully aimed it doesn’t redirect the river and flood the towns. Not to mention there the Temple of Lou around as well… Simply scratching it would likely incur the divine retribution of Lou. The build itself is a Divine Gem so a Disaster will occur if it gets damaged. This is also an area of intersecting ley lines so I also have to be careful not to accidentally damage them as well which could change the environment around here and disrupt the lives of local wildlife and farmers. The mountain we are currently on should be Mt Revils so-”

“Although I understand that you want to account for everything but I think those types of goals are too idealistic. Stop worrying about the little details. When things are as desperate as they are now taking down Seirph should have the highest priority!”

Godou winced slightly as he said this. Wasn’t it because he had this sort of philosophy that all his fights ended up including so much destruction? As opposed to, Ferrex’s careful consideration every single cause and effect, his mentality seemed crude. However, if you’re stuck in a situation where damage in necessary, then you might as well go all out.

“To create a plan I need to resolve myself to accept the sacrifices needed to bring about the results. I am the one who feels the weight of my decision the most.”

“Take a few breaths to calm down and review the situation. You won’t be able to think of anything if you stay as you are now. I think I can understand what you are getting at but the tides of battle change really quickly. If you can’t think of a flawless plan where everyone ends up happy then go for the next best thing! If you can’t eat curry then just settle for curry rice instead!”

Godou had added the last bit as a joke to help keep Ferrex from brooding. When under pressure it was better to make a brave face and act normally rather than let your anxiety show.

When on the losing side of a sport’s match, a good playmaker should continue to appear as always to show that they haven’t given up. This keeps the morale of the team up and hopefully stops their condition from deteriorating any faster. Though, this current situation was many times more dire than a simple sport’s match…

“Well, I guess the biggest problem is that I don’t know what part of the Heaven’s Calling Seirph has.”

“Heaven’s Calling?”

“The Heaven’s Calling is a series of powerful holy spells can only be learnt be the Divine Saint of a religion. However the only Heaven’s Calling spell a Divine Saint can learn are the ones related to their Church.”

“Powerful? How Powerful?”

“That buff I gave you is part of my Heaven’s Calling series. Because I serve the war goddess of wisdom I am also to attain my current state of clairvoyance.”

“A war goddess of wisdom… Athena… Can you also do something ridiculous like revive from the dead or something?”

Ferrex’s changed after he heard Godou’s absentminded murmuring.

“As a matter of fact, I can actually… I’m surprised that you could deduce both that ability and the name my religion by just hearing their attributes…”

Wait, so Athena exists in this world as well? Speaking of which, wasn’t Freya the name of a goddess in reality as well? It seemed like this game had absorbed and adapted the mythology of reality to create this sort of fantasy setting.

Seeing that Ferrex was still staring at him for an explanation Godou hastily elaborated:

“Well it was just a lucky guess… When you mentioned your god as a war deity I immediately thought of steel and death which linked to immortality or invulnerability. During your incantations earlier you were saying something about the souls of the fallen or something as well. From that I thought maybe resurrection is possible…”

“That’s an interesting way of looking at things”

Yeah… when you start fighting gods for a while you start developing a habit of trying to predict their abilities from their attributes…

Godou didn’t verbally say the last bit, instead he voiced a worry that had just occurred to him.

“I remember Seirph also saying something about life and death during his incantations as well… do you know what sort of church he comes from?”

“The church of Embinyu… It’s a church that’s been out of the radar for the past few decades. I don’t remember much information about them… Embinyu… life… death… I think they’re also known as the Resurrection Church… Wait! Resurrection!”

Having just reached the same conclusion, Godou could see that Ferrex was on the verge of falling back into despair.

“If Seirph also has the ability to revive from the death then what are we supposed to do? This is hopeless… Damn it! Am I going to fail again? Why do I always end up running into these crazy powerful psychopaths?”

The looked over at Seirph who was floating lightly above the ground, completely unfazed in the face of several coordinated attacks from many high level users.

Trying his best to prevent Ferrex from falling to another bout of depression, Godou tried to iron out the details of what sort of firepower they current had.

“Ferrex, tell me what kind of things can your Heaven’s Calling spells do? I know it may seem bleak but there’s no way that he doesn’t have a weakness. I’ve been observing him for a while now and form what I can see he seems very fixated on aiming for the leaders of each group. But at the same time he lets them arouse the spirits of their subordinates before killing them off”

“If the leader falls straight after making a rallying call then morale will drop down lower than when it as before the rally was made. When morale is low the army becomes a weaker then they originally are. This allows him to slaughter us in a quick and efficient manner… But why is he so fixated on doing this quickly?”

“He’s overconfident. Maybe that angel form of his has a time limit or something. Either way, a battle of attrition goes against him doesn’t it?”

“Now that you mention it, it seems like Seirph is currently suppressing his powers right now. Maybe that angel form has a high consumption rate… then again, I doubt he is just going to let us just drag it out until he runs out.”

“This at least provides my point that he’s not completely invincible. Let’s see if we can iron out a plan of some sort.”

“Okay… I’m with you. I will tell you my Heaven’s Calling series…”

***

The army seemed to have regrouped and reorganised themselves but the end result was the same.

Projectiles that were directed at Seirph were stopped as if they hit an invisible barrier and dropped harmless to the ground. Spells shot hit him were deflected from their original targets, occasionally reflecting back and hitting their own caster. Melee strikes from swords, daggers and axes were similarly blocked.

Occasionally, some attacks bypassed the barrier but these were casually batted away by one of the many golden angel wings on Seirph’s back before they could do any harm.

The fighters despaired but did not give up. The defeat of the Kallamore Knights had affected their morale badly and this caused stat debuffs on them all.

They surrounded him only to find themselves impaled by multiple earth spikes, pierced by holy Lances or struck down from behind by a demonic spirit.

It was like pitting a group of stone-age savages against a military tank. Despite their advantage of numbers, the basic difference in strength as too much. As more of the fighters died, Seirph store of Resurrection Energy slowly increased.

Suddenly, a rallying call was made. Seirph noted that the one who made it was wearing higher level gear then the rest, probably one of the leaders then.

While that rallying call was made, a squad of high agility type fighters tried to ambush him from behind.

It was no use though. He had already seen through their movements already with his holy sensing.

He turned around and unleashed a bolt of magic at the leader, a thin, grey, masked figure.

However, just as the spell was about to hit the figure vanished and instantly reappeared in front of him. Teleportation? No it seemed like something different.

The figure tried to strike him directly with fist protectors but was blocked by his automatic magic defences. Disregarding all this, Seirph summoned up a nova of ice around him which struck and killed the figure as well as all the other fighters around him.

Afterwards, he moved on to the next group of fighters to kill.

***

“…So that’s the plan. Can you think of any other holes?”

“Nope I think this this the best we can work with right now.”

“Complex plans are best to be avoided when facing a Divine Saint. It’s best to eliminate Seirph before he has a chance to show his abilities. That being said the success probability of this is probably 50%. That being said how can you be so sure that the army is going to act that way?”

“Watching and analysing people’s actions has become a habit of mine. It’s just what I think our commanders will do based on what I have seen them do so far.”

“Well, I’ll trust your judgement Godou. Now as we agreed…”

“Yeah I’ll go a bit further back and act as a lookout...”

Part 3

Ferrex stood on the edge of the field on the side that was closest to the Lost Temple of Lou. There had been many plans that he had discussed with Godou. Many of them were discarded but some of them actually seemed plausible.

There were many factors that they had to consider when fighting Seirph.

First of all, the demonic spirits summoned in the beginning were really hindering any chance of a counter attack. If a normal party attacks them without a powerful priest or an anti-darkness class like Reta than these spirits would just rise back up again completely unharmed.

Then what should they do? Should they go and help the other parties?

No, that would not be a wise choice. Fighting the demonic spirit with their party itself was hard enough. It was unimaginable how hard it would be to coordinate a group of strangers.

But then Ferrex had another option of fighting available to him. He had considered recalling the souls of the fallen and have them fight the demonic spirits as summons. Ultimately he had decided against it because his conversion rate of resurrection energy to soul power isn’t fast enough to sustain that many souls for more than a few seconds.

The main problem was that there was just too much Resurrection Energy around.

Scared energy was needed to fuel most of the spells of Divine Saints. The Demonic spirits were also sustained by the oppressive amount of Resurrection energy in the area. Therefore, it was logical to assume that once there was no resurrection energy in the area Seirph was powerless.

This of course was incorrect. Ferrex had once made that mistake a long time ago when facing a Divine Saint Knight. That mistake had cost him his sense of identity and left him with a lifetime of regret. He would not make it again. Although he could not change the past, he would not let it tarnish his future either.

Whether powered by Sacred Energy or not, Divine Saint Variants should not be underestimated. They were dangerous. He had to strike Seirph down before he could do anything else.

To put in simply, Seirph was too dangerous no matter now weakened he was. Therefore, depending on some grand complex strategy was impossible. However, since the times of ancient warfare there was always one strategy that had a high chance of success against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. Use brute strength to smash them at their weakest!

The plan the two of them had come up with was one which covered most of these factors.

- Start now!

At the same time Ferrex heard Godou’s whisper, he saw the frontline fighters of the army retreat as the mages started to unleash a powerful spell that they had been chanting 5 minutes previously, just as predicted.

Strengthening his resolve, Ferrex knew it was time to pull out his final trump card. The strongest spell in his Heaven’s Calling arsenal. Since this spell was so powerful, there was a high chance of it backfiring on him so Ferrex had casted an enchantment on himself as a precaution.

“O heavenly messenger, come hither and deliver this plead to the great goddess…. O one who governs all knowledge, thou faithful servant seeks your guidance.”

In exchange for consuming all the Soul Power in the area…

“I call upon thee, mighty one who rules over the souls of the fallen, grant your servant the power to vanquish the calamity that has broken the balance of the world.”

…this spell delivered an attack so powerful that the entire mountain range could be destroyed if he didn’t actively focus on limiting its power…

“I beg of you, for I am thy vassal, eternally stoic and ready.”

This was an attack that was both unblockable…

“I beg of you, for I am thy medium, a subject of thou wisdom and strategic might.”

… and unavoidable.

“I beg of you, for I am the symbol of Athene! May you be worshiped by your followers and may the pagans tremble before your name!”

This is his trump card!

“Blasphemers! Behold the might of my power! And regret for all that awaits you is the darkness of the abyss!!”

The strongest spell of the Divine Saint of Athene!

“O omniscient one who holds defines the art of strategy and guides the souls of the fallen, answer my calls and deliver a calamity to obliterate the enemy and right the wrongs of this world! Heaven’s Calling-”

Ironically, it was only because of the preparation that Seirph had gone through that had made it possible for Ferrex to use this spell.

“-Doomsday of Athene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Nothing happened for a moment. The battle raged on unchanged. Seirph walked through the mages’ bombardment completely unscratched. and then-

SHATTER!

With the sound of breaking glass the barrier around the army broke. The wind roared loudly and buffered everyone on the battlefield.

All the combatants looked up and saw…

A glowing meteor falling forcefully from the heavens.

The meteor itself was about 5 metres wide and must have weighted several tons.

And it was aimed directly at Seirph.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At a velocity so high that almost nobody could react, the meteor smashed into the ground. Just before it hit, Ferrex caught a glimpse of Seirph releasing all 10 angel wings in an attempt to stop the meteor with a barrier.

Seirph flew up to meet the meteor. A dense barrier of green light forming a sphere around him. The meteor collided with the barrier. The barrier cracked… and held.

Just as it seemed like Seirph had managed to withstand the spell, the meteor accelerated even faster for a spilt second.

Seirph was rammed into the ground, barrier and all. The impact of the meteor formed a 20 metre wide crater on the field. However, the spell didn’t end there.

As soon as the meteor hit the ground, it exploded into a towering pillar of light, sending shockwaves of energy everywhere.

Miraculously, none of the fighters in the army were killed by the shockwaves. Despite the mass and velocity of the meteor, the crater formed from its impact stopped short of the army as well. This very fact could be considered a miracle brought forth by the gods… Or a demonstration of Ferrex’s skill as a Divine Saint.

The pillar of light expanded rapidly for a split second, reaching the edges of the crater before dissipating quietly to reveal… nothing.

There was precisely nothing there to reveal anymore. The meteor had vanished. Seirph was nowhere to be seen. All that remained was a crater-sized bottomless hole.

Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10547.

Ferrex took note of the sudden drop in Resurrection Energy. This was far from good news. The only combatants on this battlefield who could use Sacred Power were the two Divine Saints. As feared, Seirph was still able to resurrect himself after dying.

However, this still wasn’t the end of Ferrex’s spell.

Chaos erupted in the army as they spotted another meteor falling from the sky.

It crashed into roughly the same place as the first meteor creating another crater from its impact.

Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10496.

It too then exploded into a pillar of light.

Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10634.

Then another meteor fell…

Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10231.

And exploded.

Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10535.

And another.

Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10712.

As the last meteor disappeared into a pillar of light, the bombardment of meteors stopped. And there was silence. Was this the end? Had that attack actually managed to finish off Seirph?

Ferrex felt that something was off but couldn’t quiet put his finger on it. He hadn’t noticed the remaining Resurrection Energy decrease anymore which meant that Seirph hadn’t resurrected after taking that last hit from the meteor.

Everything had gone according to plan. Previously, Ferrex had only released all the meteors at the same time when he used Doomsday of Athene. However, Godou had proposed the idea of releasing them one at a time, something which Ferrex had never tried doing before.

Their final plan had been to reduce the amount of Resurrection Energy to the lowest possible amount, and then kill Seirph with meteors until he ran out of Resurrection Energy to revive. Since Doomsday of Athene consumed all the Soul Power Ferrex had, they didn’t need to worry about the Soul Power converting back to Resurrection Energy.

At the time he cast the spell, Ferrex had managed to convert the majority of Resurrection Energy into Soul Power. In truth he had been worried about what to do after if Seirph could resurrect more times than he could kill him but Godou had just said that they could improvise something afterwards.

Ferrex had offered so much Soul Power that he could still launch a few more meteors if he wanted to but decided against it. He quickly ended the spell. As he had told Godou earlier, doing too much damage to this area was ultimately detrimental.

Alas, it was this decision that ultimately lead Ferrex to his downfall.

As he let his guard down, there was a slight tremor and several spikes of rock erupted from the ground. They scored a direct hit on Ferrex, knocking him a few metres away.

“Uh…Regen Commandment!”

Reflexively, Ferrex cast a healing spell on himself as he took the brunt of the attack. He tumbled to his feet as stared at his assailant in shock.

Emerging from a tunnel the ground, was Seirph. Disheveled and covered in dirt, but otherwise fine.

Belatedly, he realised that he had not gained any experience from after “killing” Seirph. Tell-tale signs that he had failed. Ferrex wanted to curse himself for his negligence. He had already known how hard it was to kill a Divine Saint. There was no way that everything would just go according to plan.

“Gale Storm”

He no further time to think though as Seirph summoned up a tornado of wind and threw it at him. Ferrex found himself blown in the air, spinning at dizzily fast speeds. The only reason he had managed to survive was because he had high magic resistance due to his Divinity stat. However, at this rate he would be die soon.

The amount of remaining Sacred Energy left was meagre. His proficiency with his Heaven’s Calling spells were not enough to allow him to resurrect with only that much. This meant that he would die a true death. No further revivals using that method.

The instant he came to that conclusion, the torrent of Ferrex’s thoughts calmed down. Unnecessary thoughts that clogged up his thinking space were eliminated accelerating his thoughts. Focusing his mind, Ferrex circulated mana throughout his whole body.

Circulated Mana Distribution has activated.

100 Mana is being consumed per second.

Damage from most magical and elemental attacks has been reduced by 50%

This was a mage’s technique that temporarily reduced the power of magical attacks directed at him. But for some reason, Circulated Mana distribution wasn’t as effective as it should be against Seirph spells. Was it because Seirph as using a predecessor of Ancient Magic to cast spells?

Mana Structure Comprehension has activated.

You have learnt a new skill: Mana Casting.

It seemed that because his profession was one closely related to serving gods, being this close to the Lost Temple of Lou powered up his abilities. It had only taken two hits for him to figure out and learn Seirph’s spell casting technique.

Still, he would probably only last about 9 more seconds against Seirph at this rate. Ferrex calmly noted that he couldn’t rely on anyone else to save him this time. The army had retreated behind him to escape the falling meteors. They were now too far away to save him before he died.

That meant that the only option left to him was to fight back.

“Holy Lance!”

A series of golden lances were launched at Ferrex this time while he was still in mid-air from being blow by the tornado.

With no other option, Ferrex tried to use Seirph’s technique of spell casting. Right now he didn’t have the time to read how to use it properly from the skill window so he decided to learn it on the go.

Ferrex imagined a gust of wind blowing himself a few metres away so that he could dodge the incoming lances.

Mana Casting has failed.

Mental visualisation was not strong enough.

A Verbal trigger is needed to cast spells.

Due to class bonuses there is no penalty.

Since the skill failed, Ferrex found himself with no choice but to analyse the lances as they came towards him. With the power of his True Sight amplifying his ability to understand and seen through the structure of structured spells, he should be able to pull this off…

“Ultimate Heal!”

The moment the holy lances hit him he cast a powerful healing spell on himself which was amplified by the holy aura of the Holy Lances.

Mana Structure Comprehension has activated

You have learnt a new spell: Holy Lance.

With Ultimate Heal buying him a few more seconds to fight, Ferrex started to prepare himself mentally for a second attempt at Mana Casting.

Using your imagination to create effects on reality. Truthfully, Ferrex thought that structuring magic circles through formulae was a lot easier. Nevertheless, he persevered and visualised the effect of the spell that he wanted to cast.

Rather than doing direct damage, what he wanted was to weaken Seirph even further. Weaken his combat ability. Weaken his ability to cast spells. Ferrex kept a firm image of this ideal. Now, all that was left as a verbal trigger to active the “spell”.

He thought for a split second to find an appropriate name which would match and strength his mental image, finally settling on:

“Imprison!”

And released the spell with a blinding flash of light… Just as he was stabbed through the chest with a spear of light.

***

Godou had been watching from a far when Ferrex had summoned his meteor shower. He had started running when Ferrex had for some reason stopped the spell. After killing a monster experience should be rewarded to the combatants against it. Although, Godou had not done much in terms of fighting Seirph, he was still in a party with Ferrex and should have gained some experience through that link.

However, since no such message had appeared, he had grown suspicious and started making his way to Ferrex as soon as he could. By the time he got close to him, it was already over.

Seirph used something that looked like wind type magic to fling away Ferrex’s body into the midst of the army. A benevolent smile mockingly appearing on his face as if saying “this is what happens when you challenge me”.

Morale fell as the army saw that not even an attack on the level of a meteor shower was able to take down Seirph. A paralysing atmosphere was suffocating all the fighters in the army.

Hurriedly, Godou made his way to where Ferrex had landed and found that he was still conscious. He made his way to Ferrex’s side.

Godou opened his inventory rummaging through the contents. His inventory contained a range of things, food, a canteen of water, a short sword, a dagger, a shoulderplate… these stuff that had dropped from the kobolds; some smoke bombs, cheap scuptures and a few other pieces of junk Ferrex had given him before going on the trip. Finally, he found what he was looking for. Godou pulled out a bottle filled with red liquid. A health potion.

Ferrex looked at him with glazed eyes before coughing out blood and saying:

“Guh… Don’t bother… I’ve past the point where a potion can heal me… looks like I failed…”

Despite his protests, Godou forced him to drink the potion away but it didn’t seem to have any affect.

“Godou… I have something to ask of you… Please… survive…”

Ding!

The Request of the Divine Saint of Athene

As your friend, Ferrex has request that you somehow manage to survive the massacre of the Divine Saint of Embinyu.

Difficulty: Unknown

Restrictions:

Close relationship with Ferrex

Rewards:

Unknown

Penalty:

Quest fails if you die.

“Don’t force yourself to talk when you’re in that sort of condition!”

“No… in that last exchange… I cursed… weakened… his magic… 7 minutes… you can do… Please…”

Godou noted with distress the Ferrex seemed to be growing progressively weaker as he spoke and his breaths grew more ragged.

“Yeah… I promise...”

You have accepted the quest.

Quietly, Godou accepted the request, a torrent of emotions starting to rise as he looked the dying form of his friend. There was no reason not to accept. There was no reason…

“Good… Then I will entrust… this to you…”

Ferrex relaxed as Godou accepted his request, glad to get his message across. He took of his pendants and shoved them weakly, into Godou’s hand. Then with a trace of irony on in his voice, he muttered.

“Man… Divine Saints… are really… hard to kill…”

And said no more. His body glowed suddenly and then started to dissolve into flames similar to how a player’s body would upon death. However, the colour of the flames was completely different. They were golden and blazed like a bonfire, as if to notify the world of the passing of a great power.

The dam holding back Godou’s emotions broke as he watched Ferrex dissolve into golden flames. A jumbled mixture of emotions assaulted him. Anger. Frustration. Sorrow.

No, rather than sorrow, what he felt was emptiness. Players respawned after they died. That was a fact that he had gotten used to since coming to this virtual world.

But Ferrex was an NPC.

NPCs were different.

Unlike players who only treated Royal Road as a game, NPCs had to live in this in world.

MORALE has dropped. MORALE is now negative.

Players would only have to face a mere loss in experience points if they were killed but NPCs were different.

For them, this was reality.

They were the people of this world.

As such, they were the people who would really die if they get killed!

MORALE has been converted to DESPAIR. You have lost the will to fight. All skills and spells will fail.

CLATTER!

The sounds of weapons dropping from the hands of the despairing fighters echoed across the field.

However, Godou paid no attention to it. Having just witnessed a friend permanently die fight in front of him, there was no way that he would be in the right mind to notice this.

Considering this, of course, sadness was an obvious reaction. However, overwhelming sadness were anger and frustration.

Anger at Ferrex for dying.

Anger at Seirph for killing him.

Anger at himself not being able to save him.

And Frustration.

Yes.

He had been frustrated all along.

Frustrated at his own weakness.

Frustrated at his inability to do anything up in this point of time.

During the fight with the demon he had had only been able to become a distraction while Ferrex, Reta and even Flay put their lives on the line to take it down.

During their assault on Seirph, he could only watch helplessly on the side lines as his peers sacrificed themselves to try and kill Seirph.

And just now, he had helplessly witnessed one he had called his friend die in front of him.

The shock sunk in.

What would he do now?

What could he do?

Would he attack Seirph in a fit of anger and surely be killed along the way?

Would he run away from the battlefield mourning the loss of his comrades and later sing tales of their bravery?

Would he try and beg for forgiveness, forever cursing his moment of weakness?

Or would he simply try to forget everything about this event?

Would he come out of the capsule afterwards, just pretending that this never happened and never log onto Royal Road again?

DON’T SCREW WITH ME!!!!

Such petty actions were neither appropriate for his style or stature! Rather, Godou felt that he would never forgive himself if he did such a thing.

After all, the one known as Kusanagi Godou was not so weak.

Instead, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to just smash the enemy that was before him right now?

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to make to taste the pain and weight of all the suffering he caused?

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to force him to kneel down and tremble in fear?!

After all, he was given the privilege of making such unreasonable requests.

After all, he was a King, a monster capable of killing gods.

That’s right, a Devil King was such a position. For people like them who fought gods on a regular basic such a situation should be a walk in the park.

That’s right, he was such an amazing existence. If he couldn’t achieve victory in such a hopeless situation then he had no right to call himself a Devil King!

That’s right, Ferrex, I will keep my promise to you and survive!

I will keep my promise to you and obtain victory!

If there was only a 0.0000000000000000001% chance of victory then all he simply had to do was drag out that 0.0000000000000000001%. To become a Campione, that level of ability was the bare minimum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A rush of adrenaline surged through Godou’s body, his determination blowing away all his hesitations, heightening his senses and honing his mind to a perfect mental state.

Conversely, this effect had nothing to do with the mechanics of Royal Road and of course, there were no numerical changes on the stats of his avatar.

This was the rush of excitement he would only feel when he was truly serious about winning. A state where his natural reflexes, inborn dynamic vision and the monstrous concentration of a Campione completely optimised his combat ability.

Previously, this had never happened to him when he fought in Royal Road because despite the realism of the virtual world there was always some corner of his mind that thought “Ah this is just a game, I am not in any real danger so I don’t have to take this seriously”.

But now he thought differently.

Virtual Reality was just as real and important as reality. Monster, NPCs and players were all conflicting elements in this world.

They were all alive. And they all fought among and against each other, following the twisted wishes of the creator, the so called god of this world.

(However, if such a tragic world was predetermined by the rules of some sadist game developer then I refused accept it!)

That’s right, Godou refused to acknowledge it!

Ding!

You have learnt new skill: Overpowering Will (Passive)Overpowering Will is now active.

Fighting spirit is continually rising.

As he reached that conclusion, Godou found himself immune from the paralysing atmosphere created by DESPAIR.

Unfinished, discarded plans recklessly joined together in Godou’s mind combined with all the knowledge he had obtained about this viritual world. It was only when fueled by his resolve and anger that he would think this way. There was a way to obtain victory. He was confident of it. Now all that was left was to improvise until he reached his ideal solution!

Realising this, Godou decided to do something about the pitiful state of the defence army. This was all for the sake of victory. Godou looked for an elevated platform, saw one and climbed on top of it. From his position he could see the remaining survivors. Of the original 3000 about only 1000 remained.

Despair and hopelessness was written on all of their faces. Seirph, who had yet to renew his assault, watched him curiously from afar. Godou glared at him but focused on the issue at hand.

(Your turn will come later!)

He took a deep breath.

“HEY NOW, ISN’T THIS PATHETIC!!! Aren’t you guys supposed to be the strongest military in Versailles?! How pitiful, for all of you to give up as soon as you have no one to lead you! Strongest in Versailles, don’t make me laugh, aren’t you the ones getting owned by a single enemy right now?”

Although his voice did not seem particularly loud, all the survivors had heard him and responded. Godou spoke deliberately choosing words which he knew would incite anger from the demoralised army.

“Brat! Do know how much we went through-”

“You noob! He just curb stomped the-”

“IF YOU HAVE THE ENERGY TO COMPLAIN THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!”

“What?!”

“A team that has no chance to win is one that has given up! Who gave you permission to just decide that defeat is inevitable! If there’s an obstacle before you then smash it down!!!

He took down our strongest fighters. But so what?! Look at what happened to him in exchange!!! He is no longer as strong as he was from the start. Are you just going to let their sacrifices go in vain?

Impossible? Invincible? No such thing. There is no such thing. All I see is a monster waiting to be killed.

No matter how you look at it we still outnumber him 1000 to 1. That means we have about a 1000 chances to kill him. Now, even if we fail 999 times as long as we succeed on the 1000th try then victory belongs to us!

HEY SOLDIERS OF KALLAMORE! IF YOU HAVE GUTS TO CALL YOURSELF A WARRIOR ON THE BATTLEFIELD THEN LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!!!!!!”

“Tch… Don’t get ahead of yourself brat”

“He’s right! It’s too early to give up!”

“…rely on you pfft, I can walk on my own two feet…”

“WE ARE STILL ALIVE! AND EVEN IF YOU DON’T FIGHT YOU WILL STILL GET KILLED SO WHY NOT DIE TRYING?!!!

DON’T YOU WANT TO PROVE THAT YOU’RE NOT ALL TALK AND NO BITE?!

DON’T YOU WANT TO AVENGE YOUR FALLEN COMRADES?

AS LONG AS WE CAN FIGHT THE BATTLE ISN’T OVER!!!!!”

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ding!

+ 1 Charisma+ 1 LeadershipYou have learnt new skill: Rallying CallYou have used Rallying Call.

DESPAIR has been converted to FURY. You and your allies have been placed in a berserk state optimised for combat.

+ 3% Health regeneration

+ 6% Mana regeneration

+ 4 Stamina

Second Wind Buff has been applied to everyone who heard your speech.

+ 4% damage output

+ 7% to all stats

+ 110 Fighting Spirit

The army roared in response to Godou’s forceful attempts to rouse their spirits. However, that wasn’t the point of the rallying call.

(If I read him right, Seirph is going to focus all his attention on me now.)

Godou’s real goal was to have Seirph focus his attention on him. Bolstering the fighting ability of the army was just a positive side effect.

Running to the front of the army he shouted.

“NOW EVERYONE CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”